This past Tuesday evening, we had the pleasure of holding a combined meeting session with our FTC friends from Wyomissing, Team 4433 Smokin' Motors.  This experience proved to be an excellent opportunity for both teams to lend a helping hand.  We compared our design, programming, and marketing plans and found areas that both teams could improve.  Overall, it was a great way to become better connected with fellow FIRST competitors and show 'Gracious Professionalism'.  Thanks, Smokin' Motors for a great meeting.  Let's get together soon!

To say the least, our first competitive event of the year, the Hat Tricks Qualifier, was a crazy roller coaster ride!  We ended up winning 3 of our 5 matches, despite experiencing so many unforeseen mechanical and programming problems.   While the victories were nice, the team was feeling rather disappointed.  We clung to a glimmer of hope that quickly faded as our team was not selected to compete in the semi-final matches.  As the awards ceremonies continued to progress, our spirits were pretty low.  However, we received a jolt of positivity when we were informed that we had been nominated for the THINK AWARD.  Simply being nominated was quite an honor, however, we became absolutely ecstatic when we were announced as the award's recipient.  Our emotional state was bolstered to yet another new high when, several minutes later, we were awarded the first runner-up recipient of the INSPIRE AWARD.  As a result of this distinction, we earned a trip to compete in the state competition to be held in February.  What a day!